1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a beverage container, more particularly relates to a beverage container with high sealability which prevents leakage of the contents and which is provided with a lid which is easy to open.
2. Description of the Related Art
Usually, when buying a drink to take out or the like, after the drink is poured into a container such as a cup, a lid is affixed thereto. This is to prevent the contained drink from spilling when the cup is shaken when taking the drink home. When the lid completely seals the opening part of the cup, it is effective at preventing the spillage of the content. However, the lid must be removed when you want a drink which is troublesome. Further, there is the possibility that the drink will be spilled when removing the lid. It would be convenient if once the lid is affixed to the container, you could drink the contained beverage with as much of the lid covering the container as possible.
For example, a cup provided with a lid with an elongate protrusion like a beak as a mouthpiece has been suggested (refer to patent reference 1). A small hole is formed for the beverage in the mouthpiece protruding from the lid of the cup according to patent reference 1. Thus, in a state of the cup having the lid affixed, even if the cup is knocked onto its side or turned upside down, there will be little flow of liquid (the beverage) from the small hole in the mouthpiece. However, the cup according to patent reference 1 is mainly aimed at infants, and the amount of liquid which can flow through the small hole in the mouthpiece is small. Suppose that the opening of the small hole were to be made wider, the effect of controlling the flow of liquid would be lost. Based on this, a cup with good sealability of a liquid inside is difficult to make for the general public.
With this in mind, a lid provided with an operation means for opening and closing the opening part for pouring a liquid into a container such as a cup has been suggested (patent reference 2). The structure of the lid of patent reference 2 allows the opening part of the cup for pouring a liquid into, to be made large, moreover the lid can be opened and closed and the usability is improved. However, the result is a more complex structure of the lid and the product unit price could easily rise. The premise being that the lid of patent reference 2 is not intended to be disposable but will be used many times.
The present situation in the case of the majority of containers used for takeout beverages is that a lid with a dome-like bulged part is used to cover the opening of the containers such as paper cups. A user places his or her mouth onto the bulged part and drinks the beverage in the container through the flow hole provided in the tip of the bulged part. However, the sealability between the cup and the lid of the existing containers is not sufficient and countermeasures against spillage have been rushed. Further, when drinking the beverage with the lid attached, the height of the bulged part is added to the height of the container making it difficult to get a feeling for the actual surface of the beverage relative to the incline of the container. It has been pointed out that especially in the case of hot beverages, the amount a container needs to be tilted cannot be judged and hot beverage is unintentionally swallowed.
In view of the above-mentioned facts, the demand is high for a novel container which can easily prevent the beverage contained within from spilling, can be produced at a low cost and further, approaches the sensation of drinking the beverage from a cup.
As related art, see the WO01/012031 (corresponding to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kohyo) 2003-506179) and WO2009/103817 (corresponding to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kohyo) 2011-512304).